Delphi will develop self-driving fleet in Singapore

Singapore's transport authority and Delphi Automotive are developing a small fleet of Audi SQ5, fully autonomous vehicles, for an on-demand service supplementing the city-state's existing public transit system. The Audi SQ5 on the streets of Singapore.(Photo: Sid Quah for Delphi)

Singapore's transport authority and Delphi Automotive are developing a small test fleet of fully autonomous vehicles for an on-demand service supplementing the city-state's existing public transit system.

The Singapore Land Transport Authority wants to provide commuters with a "first-mile" and "last mile" option between a mass-transit station and their home or workplace. The goal is to have six as-yet-unidentified vehicles in the fleet.

Delphi, which was selected for the project in a competitive bidding process, has equipped about four Audi SQ5's. In early 2015, one of the crossovers completed a San Francisco to New York trip with a crew of Delphi employees on board. While the crew occasionally took the wheel, most of the 3,400-mile journey was driven autonomously.

"We are honored to partner with the Singapore Land Transport Authority on advancing innovative mobility systems, which will put Singapore at the forefront of autonomous vehicle adoption," said Kevin Clark, Delphi CEO.

As with the SQ5, the six vehicles Delphi will equip with sensors, cameras and a technology known as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), will have steering wheels and pedals for acceleration and braking.

Glen DeVos, vice president of Delphi's services business unit, said the goal is to have the vehicles operating by 2019 along three predetermined routes on the densely populated (5.4 million people) island nation. They likely will be battery-powered and able to hold between four and six passengers.

The service will be a pilot program for about three years with the intention to make it fully operational by 2022.

In the early stages, Delphi would have people driving the vehicles as with a traditional taxi or ride-sharing service.

Delphi Automotive is leading development of an autonomous mobility on demand service for Singapore. This map shows the routes the six vehicles will travel to connect residents and visitors with existing public transit lines.(Photo: Delphi Automotive)

Before that can happen, Delphi will create a 3D map of those three routes. Such maps are necessary for the self-driving vehicles to work safely, stay on the road and detect and avoid pedestrians, cyclists and other objects.

This will be a short-distance and low-speed project. The autonomous cars would not travel faster than about 25 m.p.h.

"The focus will be on technical capability. Maybe about 2018 we'll start to look at the commercial aspect and the cost of operation," DeVos said. "We haven't worked that out yet."

Delphi competed for the Singapore project because of the data and experience gained from its automated Audis. DeVos said the the feasibility of autonomous mobility on demand is stronger in a highly dense urban settings such as Singapore. The supplier intends to pursue similar projects at as-yet-undisclosed cities in the U.S. and Europe.